RKGK / Rakugaki [Review]
Art is resistance in RKGK.
RKGK / Rakugaki. Credit: Wabisabi Games
Wabisabi Games’ debut title RKGK / Rakugaki is a speedy 3D action platformer loosely inspired by classic Jet Set Radio. The game is short but challenging, with lots to do for completionists and achievement hunters. It’s a game full of motion where movement feels great; I was compelled to get through even the most difficult bits because it just felt so good to play.
Mr. Buff’s evil B Corp has turned all of Cap City’s residents into thoughtless, conformist drones using hypnotic screens spread all over town. By spraying graffiti on the screens, Valah can free the minds of everyone in Cap City. With cans of spraypaint, her robot drone AYO, and her RKGK crew, Velah sets out to kick Mr. Buff’s butt.
RKGK / Rakugaki. Credit: Wabisabi Games
Velah runs through dystopian, cyberpunk Cap City, hunting for screens to deface and Mr. Buff’s control centers to destroy. You can run, jump, and double jump, but the real fun and speed comes from using Velah’s spray paint and AYO for propulsion. Velah can spraypaint the ground while being pulled by AYO, letting her slide quickly and smoothly around the world. You don’t actually need to spend any of the paint you use to spray the screens, so you can do this as much and for as long as you like, and its one of the most fun parts of the game. Velah can also spray her paint downwards, letting her rise a little bit as a third jump and then glide; you can chain a slide, double jump, dash, then a downwards spray to clear a lot of ground. When you combine this with grinding on rails and walljumps, you get a ton of movement options that let you make every level your playground.
Combat involves striking your robotic foes with spraypaint, whether head on or with a downwards spray from above. Most enemies will die with one hit, but they get very dangerous in numbers, especially when you add enemies that fire energy or spread shockwaves on the ground that you must dodge. There’s no block or counter. If you bomb enough screens, you’ll enter the Defacer flow state until you take damage, where you’ll move even faster and can also use your paint slide to kill enemies. Speeding around, jumping, and smashing robots is a blast.
RKGK / Rakugaki. Credit: Wabisabi Games
Aside from fighting enemies, you’ve also got to navigate the levels themselves. Levels are full of gaps, force shields, steam vents, vanishing platforms, and more. As you progress, you’ve got to get very comfortable with Velah’s moveset and and be far more careful to survive. Some of the collectibles or screens to tag are protected by the most difficult gauntlets in the game. I appreciated that some levels have gimmicks or hazards that are unique to them, giving the game a good amount of gameplay variety.
The challenge in RKGK ramps up quickly over its six worlds, each with few levels, especially if you’re trying to 100% the game. Each level has a set of medal challenges—speedruns, collectibles, no deaths, tag every screen, kill all enemies, etc. It took me around 11 hours to beat the game with a minimal number of medals collected, and of that time I’d say I spent 3+ hours stuck on a handful of stages. Getting everything would involve running each level multiple times with different goals in mind, which would extend playtime and make many levels even more challenging. The last two bosses gave me a lot of trouble, especially in their third phases; I spent over one hour trying to get the third and final hit on Mr. Buff. Thankfully if you die, you start the boss on your current phase.
RKGK / Rakugaki. Credit: Wabisabi Games
The game’s graphics are decent, though the levels are a bit monochromatic. This is offset by your spraypaint; as you run through levels, your paint from sliding, hitting, and floating is permanent on every surface. These paint effects, along with Velah’s huge animated graffiti paintings, are the visual highlight of the game. Enemies aren’t very varied and they’re all solid red. It makes what can hurt you clear, but it’s a little boring visually. RKGK has fully animated cutscenes, still image cutscenes, and manga style cutscenes. Having a third cutscene style was a little jarring, even though I preferred that visual style for the character designs.
Performance on the Steam Deck was decent. I was able to play on my TV at 1080p with several graphics settings on medium or high and maintain 50-60fps, though some combat scenarios dipped lower. Adjusting the settings fixes any issues.
RKGK / Rakugaki. Credit: Wabisabi Games
It doesn’t affect the gameplay at all, but I enjoyed the cosmetics offered by RKGK. Using either coins or ghost paint collectibles, you can buy different skins for Velah and for AYO. I think all of the color schemes and textures are based on famous anime, but I couldn’t pin all of them down. Mixing and matching styles was fun.
I might have to come back to RKGK sometime to collect everything and do all the time challenges. For now, I’m content to have finished the game. If you like stylish, high speed platformers, then this is a game for you.
RKGK / Rakugaki is available now on Steam for PC.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: Steam Deck
